Italian campaigners demand France hands over Mona Lisa

More than 150,000 signatures have been collected by an Italian campaign group that is calling for the Mona Lisa to be returned to the country.

The National Committee for Historical, Cultural and Environmental Heritage wants France to give up its possession of one of the world’s most famous paintings and return it to its home city of Florence in Italy.

The Mona Lisa is visited by thousands of people every year (Getty)

At the moment, the Mona Lisa is hung in the iconic Louvre museum in Paris, but the group believes it truly belongs to Florence’s Uffizi museum.

Leonardo Da Vinci ‘s masterpiece was displayed at the Uffizi in the early part of the 20th century and committee president Silvanon Vincenti has now made an official request for it to be returned.

Da Vinci started the portrait, which is thought to be of Lisa del Giocondo, in Florence in 1503, but he took it with him when he moved to France 13 years later.

The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 and turned up in Florence in 1913, before brief stints at the Uffizi and in Rome.

But it was soon returned to the Louvre, where it has been on show ever since and is one of Paris’ best loved attractions.